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Newark, N.J. – Mayor Ras Baraka’s police department was nowhere to be found as tensions rose late Wednesday outside the Delaney Hall illegal immigrant detention center. Protesters took over roles typically reserved for police, while ICE agents deployed pepper spray after a federal vehicle entered the premises and sparked chaos among the crowd.
Baraka, who lost the 2025 Democratic gubernatorial primary to Gov. Mikie Sherrill, had previously been arrested outside Delaney Hall during similar mayhem last year and has been defiant in demanding state and federal officials take action to close the facility.
As Fox News Digital returned to the scene late Wednesday, hundreds had already gathered outside the vehicle entrance to Delaney Hall’s sally port, while the other entrance — where Manhattan Democratic Reps. Jerrold Nadler, Daniel Goldman and Adriano Espaillat had legally gained entry — was lined with a protester medical tent and apparent commissary.
Doremus Avenue, a trash-strewn industrial boulevard, was reduced to one lane — though not by Newark Police or the Essex County Sheriff’s Office, but by protesters dressed as fire police.
BLUE STATE ICE FACILITY RAMPS UP SECURITY WITH NEW BARRICADES AMID CLASHES WITH PROTESTERS
By 9PM ET, Doremus Avenue’s southbound lane had been completely blocked by protesters, as reflective-vest-wearing “protester police” directed two-way traffic that often included large vehicles such as big rigs and goosenecks.
A single Essex County Sheriff’s deputy drove by the area rather quickly at one point, announcing that protesters should move to the sidewalk, but he was gone in a matter of seconds.
Some protesters appeared to break off from the group and quietly collect trash along the east side of the avenue, where a line of freight tracks ran.
STREET TAKEOVERS AND TRAFFIC CONTROL BY AGITATORS IN MINNESOTA CROSS LEGAL LINES, RETIRED DETECTIVE SAYS
Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka speaks in…
